Icons of the Midwest: Engaging and Examining Collections

What is an “icon”? How might the “icon’s” conceptual elasticity provide a way for reframing scholarly approaches to interpreting objects in museum collections? This session, sponsored by the Midwest Art History Society, invites papers that consider these questions with a focus on Midwest collections (with Midwest defined as broadly as possible). Papers might examine the notion of the “icon” in the context of collection reinstallations, recent acquisitions, collaborative projects and programs, as well as institutional reorganizations and commitments to diversity, equity, access, and inclusion. What is the impact of these icon-based endeavors? How do the layered meanings/definitions of “icon” allow for a critical interrogation of its conceptual prominence in driving art historical research and other scholarly endeavors? MAHS welcomes scholars to consider this invitation and suggest other ways of seeing the “icon” as well.